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The best political books ever

Over the past few weeks in our "Live Fix" chats, we've been engaged in an ongoing debate with Fixistas over the best works of political fiction and non-fiction of all time.

Our nominees are below but we want to hear from you too. Once we reach critical mass, we'll publish out the full list of titles in this space and, in so doing, provide you endless gift ideas for the political junkie in your life.

You can offer your nominations in the comments section below. Here's ours:

FICTION: "All the King's Men" by Robert Penn Warren. Released in the mid 1940s and based not-so-loosely on the life of Louisiana Gov. Huey Long, Penn Warren writes beautifully and insightfully about what politics can cost those who play it at the highest levels. The fact that it's narrator -- Jack Burden -- is a journalist doesn't hurt either. It is ranked as the 36th best fiction work ever by Modern Library.

NON FICTION: "What It Takes" by Richard Ben Cramer. No piece of non-fiction written before or since better captures well, what it takes, to run and win the presidency than this work written by Ben Kramer of the 1988 presidential campaign. The portraits of Gary Hart, Al Gore, Joe Biden, Dick Gephardt and, of course, Vice President George H.W. Bush are perfectly crafted and even today ring true.

If you have not read these two books, you MUST buy them and read them immediately or run the risk of giving up your credentials as a true political junkie.

What other books -- fiction and non fiction -- fall into the "must read' category for political junkies? The comments section awaits.

I loved both Maximum Contribution and The Sniper Bid by Rick Robinson. Both books delve into what is wrong with our political system. The Sniper Bid gives you a glimpse of how easy it is for someone with the best of intentions to get swept up in the power of politics.

Fiction: Sniper Bid by Rick Robinson. It deals not only with politics, but delves into the question of government's role (or non-role)in solving the problem of steroid use in MLB. The plot is fast-paced and engaging, and the book raises questions about Washington's wingspan. It also has tons of trivia about baseball, the Capitol building, and many of the old-time players from both arenas.

Since a bunch of folks have beat me to Caro, Machiavelli, etc., may I add to the list:

The Last Hurrah, by Edwin O'Connor -- the thinly disguised telling of the James Michael Curley story and a picture of Irish-American politics in the 1940s. Arguably the greatest book about Boston politics ever.

Kevin Starr's series on California history -- what has happened in California has colored much of US politics in the past 60-odd years, for better and for worse.

John Stuart Mill, On Liberty -- heck, we need another item in the classic political philosophy canon here, and it is a (if not the) seminal text on classical liberalism.

Nothing describes what's wrong with Washington then and now better than Rick Smith's "The Power Game", David Stockman's "The Triumph of Politics" and the remarkably prophetic Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged".

To the books I listed previously I must second "The Gay Place" as political fiction and its snapshot of Austin in the late fifties. I used to play softball on Sunday mornings with Brammer and others, in Westenfield Park, but that does not color my love for the book. I also second KK's nomination of Key's "Southern Politics" which along with Myrdahl's "American Dilemma" are the two must read books for understanding the mid-century American south. These are usually in the American political science curriculum, I assume. They were universally required in 1960.

For a short work of political philosophy there is Hoffer's "The True Believer".

My previous recommendations repeated:

"1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft and Debs--The Election that Changed the Country" by James Chace

Just for lovers of Virginia political arcana -- The Shad Treatment by Garrett Epps.

It certainly isn't the best political novel ever. I agree that the honor goes to All The King's men. But is a fun 'roman a clef' of "Howling" Henry Howell's populist run in 1977 against the Virginia political establishment.

James Burns, Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox.
William Manchester, MacArthur: American Caesar.
David McCullough, Truman.
Dos Pasos, American Trilogy[1920s labor movement and politics]
Bruce Catton, Civil War Trilogy.
Shaaras, Civil War Trilogy.

Loved What it Takes -- RBC did a very good job with all the candidates but you sense he really liked Biden and Dole. Other books worth considering: Edmund Morris's The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, Ward Just's Echo House and to a lesser degree Jack Gance; Gore Vidal's Lincoln and for what it's worth Jean Edward Smith's recent FDR was a terrifc read -- it was more immediate and gave me a better understanding of his career as Secretary of the Navy during WW I -- and how important it was to his growth and development.

"Political Fictions" by Joan Didion.
See especially her essay on the way journalists cooperate with politicians in the Bush-Dukakis race in 1988; a good companion to "Boys on the Bus."
"Nixon Agonistes" by Gary Wills is a keeper as well; his chapter on "The Denigrative Method" will remind us that Nixon is in his grave but that his legacy lives on in the fine art of the smear.

Great suggestions all!
Will just add "Huey Long" by T. Harry Williams (All the King's Men is largely modeled on HL, of course) and "Wallace" by Marshall Frady. David Halberstam says that Frady was the most talented of the journalists who emerged from the 1960s.

Great booklist here everyone.
Caro's books on Robert Moses & LBJ are longtime favorites & just re-read Halberstam's The Best & The Brightest last summer & it has lots of lessons & reminders on the perils of implicitly trusting the elites & ruling class (terms not in vogue these days, I suppose). Since we began with "All the King's Men," I'm surprised that no one suggested "Huey Long" by T. Harry Williams, the model for the novel, which reminds me to commend Jack Beatty's "The Rascal King" on James Michael Curley, on whom "The Last Hurrah" is based. Another addition to the list is Marshall Frady's "Wallace" & if you like that "Jesse" both of which are written in a rich lush Southern prose. Halberstam said that Frady was the most talented journalist to emerge from the 1960's.

"The Kennedy Tapes:Inside The White House During The Cuban Missile Crisis", ed. by May & Zelikow.

These are the transcripts of tapes Kennedy secretly made of the leadership meetings during the crisis. You read it in their own words (open and honest -- no one but JFK and maybe Bobby knew about the tapes), as this group of men deliberate what to do about the missiles, and how to either start or avoid a war that could have killed hundreds of millions and ruined the planet.

Two things are clear: 1. It's scary how close we came to a full-on nuclear war, and 2. It's inconceivable that we'll ever see this sort of record, of that sort of event, ever again.

"Everyone commenting must be under fifty. Noone has mentioned Halberstam's "The Best and the Brightest", which I always thought was the consensus greatest political book of my lifetime."

Great book for sure, but I don't look at it as a "political" book, since the title characters -- Macnamara, Rusk, Bundy, etc. -- were all unelected officials who were basically apolitical. (as opposed to someone like Robert Moses, who was never elected to any office but played a dominant political role in NY city and state. His one venture into running for office himself was a miserable failure, almost laughable. He was born to be a behind-the-scenes puppetmaster. Retail politics was not for him.)

I'd call TBATB more of a governance book. Slight difference, but a difference nonetheless.

Everyone commenting must be under fifty. Noone has mentioned Halberstam's "The Best and the Brightest", which I always thought was the consensus greatest political book of my lifetime.
How about
John Lewis' "Walking With The Wind"
"The King Years" by Taylor Branch (Pulitzer Prize)

How the Good Guys Finally Won - Notes from an Impeachment Summer. by Jimmy Breslin.

A beautifully written and different take on the Watergate scandal by a great writer. Breslin looks closely at the people, workings and politics of the House's and the Judiciary Committee's impeachment process. It reads like a thriller by one of America's most literate journalists. Breslin's imagery of documents accumulating in the impeachment staff's offices and each making small paper cuts in Nixon's presidency, until it bleeds to death - an image I'll never forget.

I've owned and re-read the book for over 30 years and recently was able to get two out of print copies that I insisted my daughters have on their booksshelf.

LaFollette's Autobiography 1912
Another Chance-Gilbert
America Transformed-Abrams
Trading Up - the New American Luxury and Jihad v. McWorld
The Crisis of Global Capitalism-Soros
The Future of Capitalism-Thurow
It Can't Happen Here-Sinclair Lewis
Turning Points in Modern Times-Karl Bracher
Reflections on the Civil War-Bruce Catton
Code Name Bright Light-the Untold Story of U.S. Pow Rescue Efforts During the Vietnam War-Veith
Tiger the LURP Dog-Miller
Guts-Gary Paulsen
Utilitarianism, Liberty and Representative Government-Mill
Dr. Brewer's Guide to English History-ThirtyFifth Edition, London 1868

Many great selections but the two books for me that are essential to understanding politics from 1960 on in this country are the incomparable and groundbreaking The Making of the President 1960 by Teddy White and Edwin O'Connor's masterpiece The Last Hurrah-Skeffington is a magnificent character and the wake scene and 'Up, Up for the Mayor!" cut to the essence of the game

Everyone should read Saul Alinski's book "Rules for Radicals", in order to learn how Comrade Barack Obama intends to change our country into a Socialist Communist Workers paradise, a la North Korea, Cuba, and the former USSR's.

From this last book I learned the probable antecedent to the right to bear arms, in an afterthought.

"Truman" will let you understand the modern Presidency as no other book I have ever read.

"1912" will take you back to the last of the great and meaningful debates in American politics.

BB, better than "Yes, Minister" were the incredible series featuring the character of Francis Urquhart [FU],
the evil PM, which were called "House of Cards", "To Play the King" and "The Final Cut". If you have never seen them, you must.

Two weeks on the McCain 2000 campaign with the generation's greatest author, during the wildest two weeks of the GOP primary. It's as probing an account of consultants, journalists, the capital "T" Truth and b.s. in a postmodern world.

It's also one of the funniest campaign accounts ever written by an author who claimed not to know much about politics, but whose skills of observation were peerless.

I've read both books and heartily concur. I might add that I also suggest both: Fletcher Knebel's 'Seven Days in May' (also a stunning--your favourite adjective--film by John Frankenheimer) and Allen Drury's 'Advise & Consent' (a good, but slightly less 'stunning' film by Otto Preminger)--both of which are STILL so timely.

In fact, perhaps we ought to ask ourselves if it's a good thing that Congress and the way the 'game' is played have actually changed so little during the intervening 50-odd years.

"Walking with the Wind" by Congressman John Lewis D-GA. The politics behind the civil rights movement, within the movement and in DC was incredibly complex and horribly twisted at times. Shows where the Southern Strategy came from. A good companion book to that is "Nixonland" by Rick Perlstein. I understand Nixon and his actions so much better now. It doesn't excuse what he did but explaining it is helpful because in many ways he was a good president. Just like reading "By His Own Rules" by Ben Bradlee,explained alot about Rumsfeld, the person which turned him into the SecDef we all came to detest...but he's actually a pretty neat guy.

"The Gay Place," by William Brammer. The main character, a Texas governor, is reputedly based on Lyndon Johnson, for whom Brammer once worked.

First published in 1961, it was considered by David Halberstam to be one of the two great American political novels, the other being All the King's Men. An informed introduction and an excerpt that gives the flavor, can be read here:

It was later republished by the University of Texas Press, as by Billy Lee Brammer, a name originally considered by the NY publisher to be too southern.

n non-fiction, I agree with others about Caro's bio of Johnson and about "What It Takes."

I'm surprised, however, that no one has yet mentioned "The Earl of Louisiana," about Earl Long. Huey's brother and the govenor of LA. It is by one of the greatest prose stylists of the 20th century, A. J. Liebling. Read it for the wonderfully crafted sentences and the wit, but read it also for the portrait of Uncle Earl, as he was known.

Sorry but in the fiction category, the late Allen Drury's (former UPI Hill reporter) Advise and Consent will always be tops in my library. Great detail, highly realistic, and remarkably prescient. And a great movie was made from it as well.

Chris, please--The Last Hurrah has to be on an equal footing with All the King's Men. One of the all-time best. I learned something new everytime I read it. It also predicts the rise of TV as a major factor in campaigns.